Optimism still high after eventful day for Tech3

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 riders are having an action-packed visit to Sachsenring this weekend for the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland.

Pol Espargaro accomplished a successful qualifying campaign to clinch eighth on the grid on Saturday. The young Spanish rider began the day by running competitively in the morning session and consistently improving his lap times until an unfortunate fall at the rapid turn 11 close to the end of FP3.

He said afterwards, “Of course eighth is not where we wanted to finish but I think we were close to our maximum with this performance, I was just two tenths away from the fastest Factory Yamaha which shows how tricky things are. Plus I had a big fall this morning where I made a mistake in turn ten and then lost the front of the bike in the following corner, but luckily no injuries were caused.”

“Aside from this, I am happy because we improved the braking stability from yesterday and this is where we gain a lot of time, however there is still some work to be done to make the acceleration better as this is where we are struggling at the moment.”

Meanwhile, Bradley Smith produced a spirited display today to seize ninth position on the grid, which will see him contest the race from the third row, despite having crashed four times already this weekend.

“Today was another eventful day and in all honesty, I’m a little frustrated as we had the potential to easily qualify on the second row. I had a fall this morning which could have been much worse, but I managed to save it as best as I could. However during the incident, the foot peg went into the front of my leg and I needed stiches, so of course this was a far from perfect start.”